Obstructing Covid warriors: Chandigarh youth, 2 women kin held guilty

Team from Chandigarh health department was restrained when it went to shift youth to quarantine facility after he tested +ve for Covid A Chandigarh district court has convicted three residents of Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, including two women, for obstructing a health department team from shifting a Covid-19 patient to a quarantine facility in April this year

Team from Chandigarh health department was restrained when it went to shift youth to quarantine facility after he tested +ve for Covid

Though the Chandigarh youth and his two women relatives will not have to serve a jail term, the court of additional chief judicial magistrate TPS Randhawa has imposed a fine of ₹2,000 each. (Image for representational purpose)

A Chandigarh district court has convicted three residents of Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, including two women, for obstructing a health department team from shifting a Covid-19 patient to a quarantine facility in April this year.

The convicts have been identified as Umesh, 20, Hemani, 33, and Raj Rani, 65. Though the trio will not have to serve a jail term, the court of additional chief judicial magistrate TPS Randhawa imposed a fine of ₹2,000 each.

A complaint in this matter was lodged by Jaswinder Singh of Dhakoli, who works as a booth-level officer in Chandigarh. He said a medical team had gone to transfer Umesh, a Covid-19 patient from Bapu Dham Colony’s Phase 1, to the quarantine facility at a hospital in Manimajra on April 26.

“Umesh refused to cooperate with the health workers and locked himself in a room in a bid to avoid being shifted to hospital. His relatives Hemani and Raj Rani wrongfully restrained the members of the health team, who managed to shift the patient to the hospital only after an hour with the help of police,” he had said.

A case under Sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease danger­ous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease danger­ous to life) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides under the Disaster Management Act 2005 was registered at the Sector-26 police station.

The prosecution said that the trio not only defied Covid-19 protocols, but also wrongfully restrained officials of the Chandigarh health department.

The three pleaded guilty. Considering their plea that was given “with free consent and voluntarily”, court held them guilty on October 1 and imposed a fine of ₹500 on them under each section. They have paid the penalty.